1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control system of a molding machine which shares operation signals between it and peripheral devices thereof with an injection molding machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, for an injection molding machine for manufacturing various articles by injection molding using resin materials or the like, a plurality of peripheral devices are connected to a main control section of a molding machine main body. As peripheral devices, there are available a takeout robot, a hot runner controller, a dryer, a mold, a temperature controller of a heating cylinder of an injection device, a conveyor, and the like. A program for injection control or clamping control of this injection molding machine is stored beforehand in a main control section.
In the case of operating a plurality of injection molding machines, a control system is used which uses one host computer for work efficiency and easier management to be connected through a communication line to the injection molding machines, and carries out central control by a dedicated program. For example, in a control system shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of injection molding machines that comprise molding machine main bodies, peripheral devices 63a, 63b, . . . , 63n, and controllers 62a, 62b, . . . , 62n are arranged. For the molding machine main bodies and the peripheral devices 63a, 63b, . . . , 63n, a conveying path 67 and mold change mechanisms (not shown) driven and controlled by a conveyor controller 66 are disposed, and molds can be optionally changed.
The controllers 62a, 62b, . . . , 62n and the conveyor controller 66 are connected through a bus 65 to a host computer 64. This host computer 64 separately controls the conveyor controller 66 and the controllers 62a, 62b, . . . , 62n. For example, running states of the injection molding machines are monitored or linked with mold codes to transmit and supply corresponding molding data to the controllers 62a, 62b, . . . , 62n of the injection molding machines.
As such a control system, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. No. 2002-86531 discloses a control system which operates an injection molding machine by a host computer disposed at a remote plate by using a network such as LAN or Internet. According to the control system of this Publication No. 2002-86531, various pieces of information are transferred with a mobilephone at a remote place by using a mobilephone and the Internet to realize monitoring, management, and operation control of the injection molding machine.
In the case of constructing a control system which uses the aforementioned host computer as a host computer, a controller of each molding machine main body at a site terminal is controlled by an exclusively created program. Accordingly, facility costs are high, and changing of the program or the system is not easy because of lack of flexibility. In other words, the system cannot be changed corresponding to improvements of each injection molding machine and the peripheral device thereof or higher performance by a new device model, creating a problem that it will be necessary to completely change all the components.
As a management operation and the program become complex, even the host computer can only execute setting at the controller of the site terminal or monitoring of the site terminal, and many control systems have no functions of controlling the peripheral devices thereof.
Generally, there are many arrangements of peripheral devices, and distances are larger between controllers of the peripheral devices for larger systems. Under such a situation, an operator moves to its installation position for each checking of an operation state or operation of the peripheral device, causing not only an increase in wastes of time but also a molding failure which may occur due to resin staying or the like. For example, when a set temperature of a temperature controller installed on an opposite operation side of the injection molding machine is changed, the operator moves away from the controller of the injection molding machine, and cannot instantaneously determine an influence on a molding process by the changed set temperature of the temperature controller.
In this case, the operator returns to the controller position of the injection molding machine to check the molding process. Depending on a result thereof, however, the operator needs to move away to change the setting of the temperature controller again. To eliminate such a manual adjustment, each peripheral device is provided with a function of storing pre-verified molding conditions. However, to access the stored conditions, the operator needs to move to the controller position of each peripheral device.